The School of Life

The School of Life is an educational company focused on how to live wisely and well. It was founded in 2008 and based in branches in London (headquarters), Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin, Istanbul, Melbourne, Paris, São Paulo, Sydney, Seoul, Taipei and Tel Aviv. The School offers a variety of programmes and services covering finding fulfilling work, mastering relationships, achieving calm, and understanding and changing the world. The School also offers psychotherapy and bibliotherapy services and runs online and physical shops which have been described as 'apothecaries for the mind'. 2History The School of Life was founded by philosopher Alain de Botton, in collaboration with a number of writers, artists and educators. The faculty includes philosophers Mark Vernon, Robert Rowland Smith and writer John Armstrong. Ambassadors for the project include photographer Martin Parr and journalist Rosie Boycott. 2Activities The School of Life offers a curriculum of classes teaching emotional intelligence. These explore ways to make work more fulfilling, improve romantic relationships, and face the day-to-day challenges of life, from facing death to relating to one's family. These classes are devised by leading authors, artists, actors and academics, combining their own experiences with ideas from great thinkers of the past to offer participants intelligent and playful ways to interpret the world, and their place within i